Body, Mind And Meditation: What Is The Relationship Between Them?

There is a lot of literature on meditation and the benefits of this practice. Although meditation was once a curiosity from the East, it is now a practiced habit for many in the Western world as well. What some of you may not know is that there is a deep relationship between body, mind and meditation.

The benefits that this habit provides to those who practice it on a daily basis are many. However, today we should rather talk about how and why it works. In other words, we will look at the changes that occur in the brain and body through routine meditation.

In a way, meditation shapes the brain. As a consequence, this in turn affects our body and our emissions. To understand how the body, mind and meditation affect each other, there are some technical conditions we need to look at. Let’s take a look at them.

Welcome to the fascinating world of the brain

Here we will look at the brain areas that participate in meditation and how they work:

• Prefrontal cortex is the brain structure that allows us to get a more rational perspective on things. The lateral prefrontal cortex (part of the prefrontal cortex) participates in the regulation of emotional experiences and limits our tendency to take things personally. This area is also often known as the evaluation center.
• The medial prefrontal cortex is the area of ​​your brain that constantly talks to you about yourself; your experiences, your ideas and your goals. This section deals with all the information that applies to you and your relationship with those around you. This section consists of two sections. One of them participates in pondering and worrying. The other plays a very important role in empathy.

• The insula is the part of the brain that controls bodily sensations and experiences emotions at the gut level. Insula is part of a system that helps modulate the response level depending on the emotions in your body.
• The amygdala is our organic alarm system, also known as the center of fear. It is directly related to the “fight or flight” response in situations we perceive as dangerous.

This is how a brain that does not meditate works

A brain that does not meditate can often feel that it is “stuck in itself”, given that it is strongly dependent on the medial prefrontal cortex, which can be called the center of self-reference. On top of this, this center is linked to the bodily centers of the feeling of fear, which causes strong neural connections between the two. In this case, it is the self-reference center that processes most of the information received.

This addiction explains why some people get “hooked” on negative thoughts. This is because the connection between the self-reference center and the evaluation center is weak.

When we increase the evaluation center’s work capacity, there is a significant decrease in the activity of the center for self-reference, the part that tends to take things personally. This also improves the activity of the part of the brain involved in understanding the feelings of others. This is basically how it assimilates all information received; it rejects erroneous data and reduces excessive thinking and worry.

The brain and meditation

There are several things going on in a brain that meditate regularly, for example, the connection between the center of self-reference and the center of fear begins to dissolve. This reduces the strength of an individual’s fear response. In fact, this may explain why anxiety partially decreases when one practices meditation on a regular basis.

In contrast, a stronger neural connection is also established between the evaluation center and the fear center. This means that when a bodily feeling of fear of something potentially dangerous reaches the brain, it is able to evaluate the situation more rationally instead of automatically going towards a fear response. In addition, this helps the individual to avoid building endless hypotheses about what can happen in life (pondering).

Empathy: An added benefit

In a brain that meditates regularly, there is a large increase in the connections between the center of self-reference and the center of bodily sensations related to empathy. Through meditation, we activate the part of the brain that is involved in experiencing empathy: the insula. In this way we become better able to deduce other people’s mental states, their desires, dreams and motivations.

Body, mind and meditation

The decline in negative emotions seems to have a direct impact on the immune system. In addition, you lower your heart rate and dilate your blood vessels by meditating regularly.

Some studies have found an association between transcendental meditation and a reduction in blood pressure. On top of that, this practice also comes with benefits for the endocrine system. When you meditate, you secrete endorphins, the so-called happiness hormone. Thus, you are able to maintain the levels of stress hormones at an adequate level.

As you can see, body, mind and meditation go hand in hand. Now, for those who want to start on the path to meditation, our advice is to do it with a professional, as well as to be consistent. We talk about taking advantage of our neuroplasticity through habits and daily practice.